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Thursday, September 22, 2011

Moving On!

Blood counts were up today!

White Blood Cells: 5200

Neutrophils: 2830

Platelets: 56 (still very low, but going up, not down)

Those WBC and Neutrophil counts are low, but they're in black on the lab report. In other words, they're in the normal range. Besides that, both the WBC and neutrophil jumps are pretty big for 3 days. Recovery from round 2 has commenced.

And that means we're moving towards the transplant team.

Meg told me there's three things that have to happen:

Insurance has to approve "priority status," which allows me to go see the transplant team.

I have to have a dental cleaning and x-ray.

Verify that blood counts are normalizing with a blood test Monday.

How quick? Well, I talked to her about 8:30. It's 9:48, and I looked at my appointment schedule, and I have a dental appointment at Vanderbilt on Tuesday, October 4 (a week and a half). The insurance called me yesterday and told me to call them when I'm moved to transplant, so they already know that's next.

The 12 days until the dental appointment gives plenty of time for my platelets to come up. You do do not want your platelets, which stop bleeding, to be low for a dental appointment; not even for a cleaning. I usually don't bleed at all at cleanings and check-ups (regular flossing prevents such bleeding for most people), but a lot of people do, and you don't want to be bleeding from the gums around most of your teeth when your blood isn't clotting properly.

So my tentative schedule of seeing the transplant team on Oct. 3 is off, but only by one week.

Got To Have a Humorous Note

The dental hygienist's name? Lori Engels.

Okay, I know it's not quite Laura Ingalls (Little House on the Prairie author), but it's awful close. I've had Dr. Watson (NOT from "Dr. Watson, I presume" fame) and Doc Halliday as interns, and I visited with Mr. Darcy when I was hospitalized.

I wonder how many other famous names I'm going to run across.

One more ...

Caleb and I leave about 6:45 for my appointments in order to avoid traffic. Since my lab appointment isn't until 8:00, we go to the cafeteria before the appointment. There I saw one of the nurses from 11 North, where I was hospitalized for 5 weeks, and I gave her a very cheery, "Hi Amanda!"

3 comments:

I added Doc Halliday into the post. I knew there was someone else even as I was writing it. Doc Halliday was on rounds long enough to become a friend, though, so it was easy to forget his movie character status. Dr. Watson became a friend, too, but he was more recent that Doc Halliday, and we had a much longer talk about the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson thing.

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About Me

I'm a Christian, happily married to a lovely and godly wife, and a father of six children. I'm a writer, an amateur church historian, and the webmaster of several web sites and blogs.

As of 2015, I am a survivor of both leukemia and lymphoma. Both cancers are for me an opportunity to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ who preserves me and gives me joy in every situation. I am confident that all things do work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose, even leukemia and lymphoma.